On November 1, 1919, the cornerstone was laid for the new Agricultural Building, which would be named Morgan Hall for President Harcourt Morgan in 1937. Into the cornerstone were placed the register of the university, a copy of the student newspaper, a copy of the UT Farmer, a list of the members of the East Tennessee Farmers’ Convention, pictures of Dr. Brown Ayres and Mr. Harcourt Morgan, pictures of the Club House and other buildings (including the UT Cooperative Creamery) previously on the site, a copy of the appropriation bill that funded the building, a list of officers and members of the Ag Club, and a history of the trowel used by President Morgan’s son to lay the first stone.
The building, which cost approximately $265,000, was dedicated on June 7, 1921, with the principal speaker being Dr. W. O. Thompson, president of Ohio State University. It is a leitmotif of Ayres Hall, having the same general academic gothic overall design, and was built at the same time. An attempt had been made to name the building for President Morgan while it was being constructed, but Morgan declined, calling such honors “dead ones.” It was named for him on November 13, 1937.
In January 1948 the Hill-O-Grams (newsletter of the General Alumni Association for contributors to the 1948 Alumni Fund) announced that living memorials to those who died in World War II or to other individuals would be planted in a new project to place oak trees along Alcoa Highway in front of Morgan Hall.